Global Commercial Property Values Grow in Q1

Commercial property values have continued to stay strong in the first quarter of the year, according to results from CB Richard Ellis...

Commercial property values have continued to stay strong in the first quarter of the year, according to results from CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). The firm released the Q1 2012 CBRE Capital Value Index earlier this week, showing there was a 5.7 per cent growth rate in commercial real estate values at the end of the first three months of 2012 compared with the year before.

The region that performed best, according to the figures, was the Americas, with real estate investment prices increasing significantly in this area year-on-year. Over the 12 months from Q1 of 2011, the capital value indices annual growth rate rose by 9.6 per cent. This follows an increase of 9.9 per cent from the first quarter of 2010 to the same period the following year.

Dr Raymond Torto, global chief economist for CBRE, said: "There has been a marked increase in investor interest in the Americas' prime properties over the last year and this is reflected in the CBRE Americas Capital Value Index." The Americas' performance was followed by the Asia-Pacific region, which saw an increase in capital values of eight per cent year-on-year between Q1 2011 and 2012. While this growth is still notable, it is far below the 19 per cent rise in capital values experienced the year before.

Similarly, global capital value growth during this period was lower than figures from between the first quarter of 2010 and 2011, when commercial property climbed in value by 12.2 per cent. This slowdown in growth of real estate prices was reflected by Jones Lang LaSalle, which recently released capital market research on commercial property transaction volumes. It reported that, while volumes totalled USD 75 billion (GBP 47.4 billion) at the end of 2012's first quarter, this is a decline of 23 per cent on figures from the first three months the previous year.

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